Existing systems and methods for detecting air in the line of an infusion device generally involve the use of ultrasonic sensors that detect the open circuit caused when air fills the volume between two sensor pairs. When the air sensor signal moves beyond a pre-defined air/fluid threshold, an alarm condition occurs and IV infusion is paused. Unfortunately, a variety of situations exist which either mask the presence of air, leading to false negatives, or generate false alarms. Fundamentally, this problem occurs because a single sensor with a univariate signal is applied to a relatively complex problem with multiple dimensions.
A system and method is needed which more accurately detects air in the line of an infusion device.